The Beginning of Something More
by Megs6292
Summary: Three and Maxie Full summary inside
1. Prologue

**Suumary:**_When the Metro Court explodes Three protects Maxie by shielding her and Maxie agrees to let him hide in her bedroom until the coast is clear. But what happens when the coast is clear for Three to leave and neither he nor Maxie want to let go each other because of the feelings they have developed for each other?_

Prologue

Maxie stood completely still as she looked at Robin who was lying unconscious on the couch.

"Robin," Maxie whispered without thinking.

Three quickly looked at Maxie's direction and gave her the "be quiet" look and then let his eyes travel in the direction she was looking. He briefly thought back to when Maxie was trying to get him to see the hostages as people…_"You know what your problem is? You need to see the hostages as people, just like you see me."_

_"No, I don't."_

_"You know, I don't have many girlfriends -- women don't seem to like me for some reason -- but I did recently make one friend. Her name is Sam. She's in love, trying to have a baby. I'm pretty sure that's what she would be doing right now if she wasn't being held up in a lobby with your psycho partners. And then there's Nikolas. He just got his son back from a kidnapper, and he would probably be at home celebrating right now with the love of his life if he wasn't here. And, yeah, I know it sounds corny to say "love of his life." But Nikolas and Emily, they have this real-life, fairy-tale romance. Did I mention Emily's in there, too? So is my cousin, robin. She's a doctor. Robin's life has real value, not just to me and my family or her boyfriend, Patrick, but to the world."_

_"I don't need to hear this."_

_"And then there's Elizabeth. I mean, I can't stand her, but it doesn't mean I want her to die. I mean, she's carrying Lucky's baby. Not only would you be killing her, but you would be responsible for the death of an innocent, unborn child."_

_"It wasn't supposed to turn out like this, all right?"_

_"How did you think it was supposed to be? Your boss gave you a mask and a gun and told you not to let anyone leave."_

_"It was a job -- five minutes, in and out. He made the plan we followed. There wasn't supposed to be real flesh-and-blood people involved." _

He was brought out of his thoughts by One holding up the detonator.

Maxie could barely hear what was being said but she did see One holding the detonator in his hand waving it around like it was a new toy, After that she must have zoned out for a few seconds because the next thing she knew Sonny and One were fighting, the room was pitch black and the detonator was at Three's feet. He slowly picked it up and before he could do anything he heard the voice of the girl he'd bonded with and came to care for while being stuck in a vault for hours.

"Don't,"

He moved his finger away from the button; he couldn't bring himself to push the button if it put her in danger. Before he could have time to think about anything the detonator was snatched out of his hand and the button was pushed. Now the only thing he could do was try his best to protect her so he pulled her behind the couch as she crouched down on her knees and he shielded her with his body as chaos surrounded them.__


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Maxie opened her eyes to find nothing but rubble where the Metro Court lobby used to be. She looked to the left of her to see Three trying to sit himself upright.

He protected me. Maxie thought to herself.

"You okay?" Three asked bringing Maxie out of her thoughts.

Maxie nodded.

"What about you?"

"I'm fine,"

They looked down and realized they had been holding hands the entire time. They looked at each other not letting go of each others hands. After a few seconds they snapped back to reality.

"You need to get that jumpsuit off," Maxie said looking around what was left of the lobby.

Before Three could respond Maxie pulled off his mask.

"Could you have pulled that off any harder?"

"I could have, hurry you have to get these things off so the rescuers think you're a hostage,"

"The other hostages will know I'm not one of them Maxie,"

Maxie sighed.

"You're just are going to have to trust me because the only way you're going to get out of here without getting caught is to pass yourself off as a hostage,"

"Why are you doing this for me?" Three asked as he squirmed out of the black jumpsuit.

"Because you didn't shoot me when we got locked in the vault and when you had a chance to press the button on the detonator you didn't,"

Three started to speak but couldn't get a word out because one of the rescuers came over to them.

"Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah we're okay. Can you get us out of here?" Maxie asked.

"Follow me and watch your step," the rescuer replied.

Maxie stood up and took hold of Three's hand as they made their way out of what was left of the Metro court.

As soon as she and Georgie got home Maxie went straight up to her room and crashed on her bed. She pulled the pink furry blanket she had shutting out the sunlight seeping through her window as thoughts of being stuck in the vault with Three went through her mind, one after the other…

"Am I supposed to feel sorry for you? I mean, you're obviously popular and really smart."

"Oh -- wrong on both counts. My grades are terrible and my friends are lacking."

"I don't believe it -- somebody as pretty as you? And if your grades are bad, it has to be that you're not trying."

"Well, now you sound like Mac."

"The step dad, right?"

"Yeah. He always sees the best in me even when it's not there."

Ok, explain how you're the family disaster.

"Ok. Well, all right, for starters -- ahem -- I got an A in school once. It was the eighth grade, art class. But I -- I do volunteer at the hospital, which came in handy when I needed to steal pain medication for a guy who was addicted. My boyfriend was shot and killed last spring. He was a cop. So I had an affair with his partner, who I've been in love with since I was 12. And it's too bad he's married to the pregnant lady your friends are holding hostage. He's the guy who was addicted to the drugs that I mentioned before, which is really the only reason he slept with me. But he told me he'd leave his wife for me and I believed him. Anyway, I -- I faked a pregnancy to trap him, so, as you can see, "disaster" is really the only word that applies."

"Actually, you're way more interesting than I thought."

"I guess. In fact, compared to you, Mr. Hostage-taking robber, my life is sunshine and roses."

Maxie pulled her blanket tighter around her as another memory came flooding back to her…

"How could you take a job that could get you killed when you have someone waiting for you at home?"

"It's not like that. I mean, there are no strings, no commitments."

"Don't you want to be with someone who cares about you?"

"It's easier when there's no expectations."

**"**Oh. So you have no problem with being used?"

"Well, we're using each other. I me, the difference is, is we're upfront about it. I mean, not like that guy Lucky you were with. I mean, you deserve better."

"Now you sound like my step dad and my sister."

"You talk about them a lot. But you barely talk about your mom."

"Yeah, well, my mom hasn't been around a lot. In some ways, she's a lot like you. Hates to be tied down, always looking for something better."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing at all if you want to end up alone. But I don't. I want to fall in love with someone and have it last. Just once."

Maxie felt a steady stream of hot tears cascading down her cheeks. She didn't even try to stop them she just let them fall freely because it was useless they just kept coming.

Why do I keep thinking about him? Maxie asked herself.

All of the sudden Maxie heard something hit against her window so she sat up, she wiped her tears away and even if they hadn't subsided they weren't as frequent. She looked out the window and from the illuminating sun she could see perfectly who it was.

"Three,"__


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Maxie slowly got up out of bed; she walked over to the window and unlatched it. Once Three was inside Maxie's room he got a good look at her he saw she was still covered in dirt and dust from the explosion and that her face was tearstained with a small stream of tears still running down her cheeks.

"Are you okay?"

Maxie nodded furiously wiping away her tears.

"I'm fine,"

Three could see she wasn't fine but before he could press her on it she changed the subject.

"What do you want?"

"I need your help, there's no way I can get out of here because the cops are all over," Three explained.

"I can't help you, I just can't," Maxie said crossing her arms over her chest.

Three looked at Maxie for a minute.

"Why not? You helped Jesse when he needed it,"

"Why can't I help you…let's see. Well, I'm the police commissioners daughter and the fact I've disappointed him more times in only a year than I can count doesn't help much either. As for me helping Jesse that---that was different because he was an undercover cop and he didn't hold me hostage for twelve hours!"

Three sighed he started to speak but stopped when he saw Maxie's rant wasn't over.

"There's another thing too. When we were in the vault I told almost everything about me but I don't even know your real name,"

Three sighed Maxie was right, she had told him all of her history and all he had told her was he had a girlfriend.

"Cooper, my friends call me Coop most of the time,"

Maxie nodded.

"Just let me think about it for a little while okay?"

Cooper nodded.

"Look I'm going to have to go out for a little while so you're going to have to hide," Maxie said as she opened her closet door.

Cooper sighed and squirmed his way into the clustered closet and shut the door. After that Maxie left the house.

Cooper stood completely still trying to not make any noise. He thought about all the conversations he and Maxie had had in the vault. Maxie had no reason to help him after the lobby exploded but she did it anyway. She had told him to trust her and he did--- but he didn't want her to get hurt because of his mess. He sighed as he remembered the many times he didn't want her to get hurt…

"Small enough to fit in a briefcase and worth a lot of money. Do you think it's something you could wear?"

"I don't know."

"Well, you were willing to risk your life for whatever's in this briefcase, so don't you want to know what it is? I do."

"Don't. Don't touch it."

"Why not?"

"The case is on a timer. We don't know when it's supposed to self-destruct and I don't want to see you get hurt."

After being locked together in the vault he began to care about what happened to Maxie, whether he wanted to or not. He winced slightly as he remembered what happened right before the vault opened…

"How did you think it was supposed to be? Your boss gave you a mask and a gun and told you not to let anyone leave."

"It was a job -- five minutes, in and out. He made the plan we followed. There wasn't supposed to be real flesh-and-blood people involved." 

"You have to believe me. I don't want you to get hurt."

"Then just stick to what we talked about. Hand over the briefcase and --" Maxie was stooped by the sound of the vault opening.

"It's too soon to come open."

"Get in. Well done, Mr. Jackal. Sorry about the lockdown. Now, hand over that case."

Coopers thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Maxie's voice as she walked into the room.

"Cooper you still here?"

"Yeah," he replied stepping out of the closet.

"I brought you a snack I kinda figured you hadn't stopped to eat anything but, you've been warned it might not be very good,"

"Why?"

"Because along with flunking every class except art I also got an F in Life Skills when we were on the cooking unit," Maxie explained.

Cooper laughed

"I'm sure you did better than you think you did,"

"Yeah, maybe," Maxie said resisting the urge to cringe when she thought about her two years of junior high.

Cooper could tell Maxie didn't her years in junior high anymore so he changed the subject.

"What is the plan exactly and what are we doing about the sleeping arrangements?"

"Okay, to answer your first question the plan is you stay here, since Mac is the police commissioner I can tell when things are calmed down enough for you to leave. As for the sleeping arrangement you're going to have to sleep on the rug," Maxie said apologetically at the fact he had to sleep on the floor.

Cooper opened his mouth to comment on the plan but Maxie cut him off.

"You just have to trust me okay?"

Cooper nodded.

"Okay,"

After a few minutes of silence Maxie opened her mouth to speak but shut it deciding not to say anything

Cooper noticed Maxie wanted to say something but didn't, he wondered what it was but didn't press her on it.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Later that night Maxie walked into her room in a tank top and pajama bottoms with her hair still damp from the shower she had just taken. Cooper looked up from his spot on the rug.

"Do you feel better now?"

"Yeah," Maxie replied plopping on her bed.

"You ready to go to bed?" Cooper asked seeing how tired Maxie looked and also seeing what time it was.

"I usually like to stay up late but I'm ready to go to bed," Maxie said getting up.

"What are you doing?" Cooper asked giving Maxie a confused look.

"Take your pick," Maxie said ignoring Coopers question but holding up two furry blankets.

"That one," Cooper said pointing to the brown one.

Maxie didn't say anything she just tossed him the blanket and a squishy pillow.

After a few minutes Maxie was settled in her bed and Cooper was lying comfortably on the rug---well he was as comfortable as a person sleeping on a rug could get.

"Good night," Maxie said quietly.

"Night," Cooper replied.

After that a comfortable silence fell between them. Cooper thought about earlier when Maxie had acted like she wanted to say something but changed her mind.

"Hey Maxie you still awake?" Cooper asked in a whisper.

"Yeah, why?"

"I wanted to ask you something,"

"What?"

"Earlier after we discussed the plan and the sleeping arrangements you acted like you wanted to say something but didn't, what was it?"

Maxie hesitated for a minute before speaking.

"I was thinking about when you threw yourself on me to protect me from the explosion,"

Cooper nodded.

"What about it?"

"Why did you throw yourself on top of me when you knew you could've ended up getting yourself killed that way?"

_Because I care about you._ Cooper thought to himself.

"I thought about what you said about seeing the hostages as people and when that detonator landed right at my feet and when I had a chance to use it I didn't because I didn't want you to get hurt,"

Maxie smiled but before she could say anything she heard footsteps in the hallway heading straight for her room. Cooper and Maxie exchanged glances before they heard Georgie's voice outside the door.

"Maxie you still awake?"

"Yeah I'm still awake," Maxie said looking at Cooper and mouthing the word sorry.

He just gave her an understanding smile before ducking into the closet.

Only a few seconds after Cooper stepped into the closet Georgie walked into the room.

"What do you need Georgie?"

"I just wanted to tell you that Mac says we have to get up early because we have to pick Robin up from GH,"

Maxie could tell Georgie was leaving something out.

"What's wrong Georgie?"

"Mom called Mac earlier because she heard you were in the hostage situation,"

Maxie nodded.

"She couldn't have called or dare I say come back last summer when I needed her could she?" Maxie asked feeling her resentment toward her mother build.

Back in the closet Cooper listened to what Maxie and Georgie were saying and remembered one particular conversation they had had in the vault when her mom had come up…

"Oh. So you have no problem with being used?"

"We're using each other. The difference is we're up front about it. Not like that guy Lucky you were with. You deserve better,"

"Now you sound like my step dad and my sister,"

"You talk about them a lot. But you barely talk about your mom,"

"Yeah, well, my mom hasn't been around a lot. In some ways she's a lot like you. Hate to be tied down, always looking for something better,"

"What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing at all if you want to end up alone. But I don't. I want to fall in love and have it last. Just once."

Cooper thought about what Maxie said about her mom not being around a lot. He understood what that was like just as much as she did. His thoughts were interrupted by Maxie and Georgie's voices.

"Maxie you know why she---" Georgie was cut off by Maxie.

"I know why she left but that was two years ago she could've come back for a short time every now and then,"

Georgie sighed she knew it was useless to talk to Maxie when she was like this.

"I just thought I'd tell you she called," Georgie said before walking out of the room.

Maxie sighed and plopped down on her bed.

Cooper slowly stepped out of the closet.

"You okay?" Cooper asked putting his hand on Maxie's shoulder.

Maxie smiled.

"I'm fine,"

Cooper saw she wasn't fine and he knew it was because it was because her mom called.

He just nodded because he didn't want to push her to talk about it if she didn't want to.

After a few seconds of silence Maxie spoke up.

"I'm not fine, I'm angry with my mom but I should be used to her not being around by now,"

"Not having a parent around isn't something you just get used to Maxie,"

"You sound like you're speaking from experience,"

"Well I kind of am,"

"What do you mean?" Maxie asked even though she thought she knew what he meant.

"When I was twelve my father left so my mother threw herself into work and dating, which meant she wasn't around very often," Cooper explained.

"This pretty much left you to fend for yourself,"

"Yeah,"

Maxie knew Cooper was leaving something out but she didn't want to press him on it. She understood not wanting to give out every detail of your family life--- even if she had told him most of the details about hers.

"We should go to bed if you have to get up early tomorrow," Cooper said looking at the clock.

"Okay," Maxie said giving him a small smile before getting under the covers.

After a few seconds Maxie fell asleep. Cooper couldn't fall asleep as easily so he stayed up and watched Maxie as she slept and thought about what he had just told her until he finally feel asleep.

_A/N:I didn't watch GH when Brenda was on so I didn't know much about the Barret history and since we aren't sure how it's going to play out I just kind of made my own history._


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The next morning Maxie awoke to the sound of her cell phone alarm.

"Ugh. It can't be time to get up already," Maxie groaned as she felt around for her cell phone on her nightstand.

When she got a firm grip on her phone her automatic response was to press the button that shut it off for five minutes and go back to sleep until Mac or Georgie stormed in her room forcing her to wake up. She pressed the button and the constant ringing stopped but she felt someone gently nudging her.

"Wake up Maxie," Cooper prodded gently.

Maxie did what she always did; she pulled the blanket over her head refusing to move.

"Five more minutes," Maxie said her voice muffled due to the fact she had her face buried in her pillow.

Cooper smiled slightly figuring out since Maxie was still half-asleep she must have thought it was Mac or Georgie trying to wake her up.

"Maxie its cooper,"

At those words, Maxie snapped back to reality and uncovered her head.

"Hi,"

"Hi," Cooper said smiling.

After a few seconds, they remembered what they were supposed to be doing and Maxie got out of bed.

"Georgie will probably be coming in to wake me up since everyone in this family seems to think I'm incapable of waking up on my own," Maxie said.

"You make it sound like they don't trust you," Cooper observed.

"Well I haven't given them much reason to lately,"

"You need to not be so hard on yourself, you messed up you can't be perfect, and nobody can,"

"I know that but, if you put me, Robin and Georgie next to each other they look perfect. I mean Robin is driven; she made a life for herself she was a doctor in Paris for years before she came back to Port Charles and then she came back and she fell in love with Patrick. Georgie, she is smart she hates to be in trouble and tries to avoid it as much as she can. I on the other hand can't stay out of it."

Before Cooper could say anything, they heard Georgie's voice from the other side of the door.

"Maxie wake up,"

Cooper started toward the closet but Maxie grabbed his arm and mouthed 'stay here'.

Cooper stayed in the spot he had been standing in as Maxie poked her head out the door.

"I'm up okay," Maxie said not bothering to hide the crankiness in her voice.

"Well you're in a wonderful mood aren't you?"

"That's what happens when I have to get up early on a Saturday,"

Georgie rolled her eyes.

"Just don't take too long getting ready okay?"

"Okay," Maxie said shutting the door.

Maxie just rolled her eyes and proceeded to get ready.

Cooper just shook his head and smiled.

Cooper sat on Maxie's bed and watched her with amusement. She was standing in front of her dresser mirror looking at her outfit; it was a white long sleeve top with a white tank top underneath.

"Do you always do this?"

"Do what? Primp in the mirror? I've done this since I was in fourth grade it was one of the main arguments Mac and I had because I took so long in the bathroom,"

Cooper laughed a little.

"Well you look fine,"

Maxie smiled.

"Thank you,"

Before Cooper could respond Mac, voice came from the opposite side of the door.

"Maxie hurry up, we have to go pick up Robin,"

"Okay I'll be right there," Maxie said looking at Cooper one last time before he got into the closet.

After that, Maxie left the room.

Once Maxie got home, she went upstairs after Robin and Patrick had made it clear they wanted to be alone. When she walked in her room, she threw her purse on the floor next to her bed.

"You can come out now,"

Cooper slowly opened the closet door.

"I heard you guys come in, was it that bad since you were so tired this morning?" Cooper asked referring to earlier that morning when Maxie hadn't wanted to get up.

"Besides Georgie and me arguing because I was cranky it was okay," Maxie said sitting in the bed.

Cooper nodded and sat on the bed next to her.

They sat in silence as Maxie flipped through the TV stations, when settled on Greys Anatomy.

"You watch Greys Anatomy?"

"Yeah, Robin, Georgie and I all watch it. It's pathetic actually, after watching season one and two on DVD during Christmas break when we started to watch it regularly we made a rule, whatever room we were watching it in is a no talk zone unless what's being said is Greys Anatomy related," Maxie explained.

Cooper just laughed.

Maxie lied down and put her squishy pillow behind her head. Cooper was still sitting but he had his head rested against the headboard and his legs were stretched out.

As the show went on Maxie explained what had been going on with the show. She had also explained who McDreamy and McSteamy were. At one point without thinking, as if it was the most natural thing in the world Cooper wrapped his arm around her. They looked at each other for a minute, then smiled at each other, and then continued to watch TV. After awhile Maxie felt her eyes, drift shut.

Cooper looked away from the TV and looked at Maxie to see she had fallen asleep. He reached for the remote control so he could turn off the TV. He moved carefully so he wouldn't wake her and turned off the TV. He shut his eyes and fell asleep soon afterwards, keeping his arm wrapped protectively around Maxie the whole time.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Maxie slowly opened her eyes. She looked at Coopers sleeping form and smiled, he must have fallen asleep shortly after she had. He smile grew even wider as she remembered when Cooper put his arm around her while watching TV, it was still wrapped around her and he was holding her protectively. She also realized her head wasn't on the pillow anymore; it was resting comfortably on Cooper's chest. She liked the way being in his arms felt so Maxie shut her eyes with all intentions of going back to sleep wanting the feel she was having to last. Just as Maxie was starting to fall back into a comfortable sleep, she heard a constant knocking at her door, accompanied by Georgie's voice.

"Maxie you need to take care of your puppy!"

Maxie got up as quickly as she could so Georgie wouldn't come in and in the process waking Cooper up. Maxie didn't even have to tell Cooper to get in the closet he did it on instinct. Once Maxie was sure Cooper had the closet door closed, she opened the bedroom door to reveal a very annoyed Georgie.

"What's wrong Georgie?" Maxie asked innocently.

"The dog you insisted on adopting left a nice present on my rug,"

"Aw, was there a little bow on it," Maxie asked sarcastically.

"You need to take care of your puppy Maxie,"

Maxie didn't say anything she just gave Georgie an expectant look.

Georgie rolled her eyes.

"Fine, I'll take the dog for a walk," Georgie said heading for Maxie's closet but Maxie turned her in the opposite direction.

"Here," Maxie said practically shoving the leash Cooper had just handed her in Georgie's direction.

With that, Georgie left the room.

"You're good you know that?"

"You're welcome," Maxie replied.

"I can't stay here," Cooper said as he packed some things in a duffel bag.

Maxie racked her brain for any way to get Cooper to stay in her room at least until it was safer for him to leave.

"It's too dangerous on the streets; you can't be seen in public,"

"I've been monitoring the news reports. The only description on me right now is height and weight,"

Maxie sighed.

"Do you trust me?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Just answer me. Do you trust me?"

"Yes I trust you," Cooper replied.

"I think I have an idea how you can hide in plain sight and not look suspicious,"

"I'm listening,"

After that, Maxie proceeded to explain her plan to Cooper.

When Maxie and Cooper walked into Metro Court, they spotted Jax and Max by the front desk.

"Hi Mr. Jax I was wondering if you were hiring?"

"Actually we are hiring,"

"Well my friend here has a lot of experience in security," Maxie said putting her hand on Coopers shoulder.

Jax nodded.

"Does your friend have a name?"

Cooper and Maxie spoke at the same time.

"Coop,"

"Three,"

Jax cocked his head to the side.

" "Three" that's an interesting name,"

Maxie stood there mentally kicking herself as she thought of any story she could make up to cover up the mistake she made.

"It's a nickname, he the third---Cooper Barret the third, so his family just calls him Three,"

"So what do people at work call you?"

"Cooper or Coop for short,"

"Okay how much security experience do you have?"

"I did a year in Iraq with M.P.S." Cooper replied.

I didn't know that. Maxie thought to herself while trying to hide her surprised expression.

Jax nodded.

"I like the idea of hiring a veteran,"

Max who had been silent up to this point decided to speak up.

"Hotel security is completely different, you have to be discreet and polite to people if they ask you questions,"

Cooper nodded noticing the look Max was giving him.

"Tell me what to do and I'll do it,"

"He'll be great I promise, he's cute so he'll brighten up the lobby,"

Jax gave an amused look.

"Besides Maxie's expert opinion what other references do you have?"

"Since I got out of the service I've just been knocking around living off my pay but, I do have my honorable discharge and sharp shooters medal,"

"Okay how do you know Maxie?"

"My friend Cheryl that I went to prep school with, Cooper's her brother, he used to visit all the time," Maxie cut in.

"Maxie used to talk about Port Charles all the time and it sounded like a nice place to live," Cooper said as he thought to himself _how does she come up with this stuff?_

"Okay I'll give you a try,"

"Thank you sir,"

"One more thing, Maxie works in the boutique and you guys will be seeing each other a lot, that won't be a problem will it?" Jax asked.

"Not a problem,"

"Not a problem at all," Maxie replied.

"I appreciate the opportunity Mr. Jax,"

"You bet,"

"He'll be great, I promise," Maxie said as she and cooper left the Metro Court.

"I can't believe you told them my name was Three, Max knows the hostage takers went by numbers,"

"I'm sorry, after twelve hours of calling you Three it just slipped but, I covered it up," Maxie said.

"Yeah until they pull up my service record and they find out my name is Cooper Barret, not of the third," Cooper pointed out.

"If they do, which they probably won't, just say you had a lot of cousins named Cooper and Three was just a nickname that just stuck,"

"How do you come up with this stuff?" Cooper asked giving Maxie a puzzled look.

"I don't know, I'm a quick thinker I guess,"

Cooper nodded.

He started to say he'd have place to live because he couldn't stay in Maxie's room forever but he stopped himself, he didn't want to think about that just yet.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Cooper and Maxie were lying comfortably on her bed. Maxie had her head resting on Coopers shoulder as they watched another episode of Greys Anatomy since it was Thursday night. Cooper had been working at the Metro Court for almost a week and he and Maxie had already decided on a place they could meet without being caught, it was a suite that nobody ever used. Cooper smiled slightly as he remembered the conversation he and Maxie had his first day of work…

"Mr. Jax told me to keep the personal stuff out of the workplace."

"I'm just testing your concentration."

"You realize that every square inch of this place is going to be covered by surveillance cameras once they're installed?"

"Well, maybe we could break the rules and find a few secret places to meet."

"You always have a plan, don't you?"

"You provide excellent motivation, Cooper Barrett."

They had flirted back and forth all week avoiding the one subject that was Inevitable---him finding another place to live.

"If I had to work with a woman like that it would drive me insane," Maxie said referring to the resident that was taking Bailey's place.

"Why?" Cooper asked.

"Because, there is happy and then there's obnoxiously happy, that's obnoxiously happy,"

"Okay but that still doesn't explain how it would drive you insane,"

"Well as you have seen this week I'm not the perkiest person in the morning plus, I've had teachers like her before," Maxie explained.

"Well, I personally think your morning crankiness is cute, now what teachers have you had like that?"

Maxie smiled at the crankiness comment.

"My sophomore year at PC high, Ms. Crostone she was the social studies teacher and I ended up having her first period. She was obnoxiously happy and in the morning all I usually wanted to do was go home and stay in bed until at least nine o'clock,"

Cooper laughed.

"What's that?" Cooper asked seeing something on the floor next to the nightstand.

"I think it's one of the photo albums me and my friends put together," Maxie said picking it up.

"When was this?" Cooper asked referring to a picture of Maxie in a white dress with rhinestones on it.

"That was eighth grade formal; you wouldn't believe how much time it took for all of us to get ready for that,"

"How long?"

"Three hours, it might have not taken so much time if we hadn't talked so much, we always had a tendency to do that, talk instead of doing what we were supposed to be doing,"

Cooper laughed.

"So how did the dance go?"

"It was like all the other junior high dances we'd had, somebody did something they shouldn't have and somebody ended up getting their heart broken. The only difference was we all dressed nicer," Maxie said resisting the urge to cringe as she remembered the junior high dances she'd gone to.

"Which side of it were you on?"

"You mean was I the one that got my heart broken? Well in seventh grade yeah but after that I pretty much steered clear of the school dances,"

"Why did you go to the formal then?" Cooper asked.

"I thought it would be different, it was stupid but when we first started going to the mall together all the time we would look at the prom dresses and fantasize about what we wanted to do and what we wanted to wear for prom,"

"It doesn't sound stupid to me, what did you want to do for prom?" Cooper asked looking at Maxie.

"Well, I had decided early on I wanted the dress to be strapless and then the three of us decided we wanted to get our hair done professionally because we always thought we could never get our hair to look right, we also had decided we wanted to get our nails done," Maxie explained.

"Did you get any of it?"

"I got two out of the three, I got my hair done and I got the strapless dress,"

Cooper just smiled and they flipped through the album some more.

"Who's this?" Cooper asked seeing a picture of a little girl that looked to be the age of six.

"That's my cousin BJ; she died in a bus accident when I was six." Maxie explained.

Cooper stayed quiet because he knew Maxie had more to say.

"That's not all that happened though, at the time of the bus accident I was sick and needed a heart transplant and since BJ died in the crash there was a chance she could've been a match since we were related. She ended up being a match," Maxie said feeling a tear roll down her cheek.

Cooper gently brushed the tear away.

"Are you okay now?" Cooper asked concern etched in his voice.

"Pretty much yeah, I had some problems the summer before last when I came back to Port Charles for high school graduation but that's a different story,"

"Why didn't you tell me before?"

"I don't know, I guess I didn't see a need to at the time,"

Cooper nodded.

Without saying, a word Cooper and Maxie moved toward each other and their lips slowly connected. At first, the kiss was gentle but soon became more passionate. Maxie slowly wrapped her arms around Coopers neck. When they finally pulled away, they just looked at each other for a second.

"We should go to bed," Cooper said after a few seconds.

"Okay," Maxie said not taking her eyes off Cooper as she climbed into bed.

After a few minutes they were settled in but neither of them slept, they just stayed awake thinking about the kiss they had just shared.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The next day at Metro Court Maxie walked up to Cooper who was watching as the construction workers continued working on the lobby.

"We should talk about last night," Cooper said quietly.

"Yeah, we should," Maxie, agreed.

"Come on,"

With that, they left the lobby and headed towards the hotel suite they always met in. Once they reached the hotel room Maxie closed and locked the door. They stood in silence for a few minutes until Cooper spoke up.

"I shouldn't have kissed you last night, I'm sorry Maxie,"

"I kissed you too, so it definitely wasn't a one sided thing,"

"I know that, but with everything that happened in the vault---" Cooper was cut off by Maxie.

"I've gotten past all of that, but what I'm trying to figure out is where I fit with you having a girlfriend,"

Cooper sighed he hadn't thought about his girlfriend at all lately, he'd thought more about Maxie than anything else.

Before he could speak, Maxie spoke up.

"Look I'll give you some time to think about it okay?" Maxie said and started to walk away but turned back around to face Cooper. She leaned up to kiss him slowly wrapping her arms around his neck, as the kiss got deeper Maxie slowly pulled away. It was as if she was trying to show him what he would be missing if he wasn't with her. After that, Maxie walked out of the room leaving Cooper by himself.

_So much for having my personal life and job separate._ Cooper thought to himself.

* * *

_A/N: I'm sorry it's so short. I ended up having to finish it during one of my study halls at school and didn't have much time._


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Cooper kept thinking about what had happened earlier that day as he stood in her closet, whether he wanted to admit it or not he cared about Maxie…probably more than he wanted to. He sighed as he remembered what had happened between them earlier that day in the hotel suite…

"Look I'll give you some time to think about it okay?" Maxie said and started to walk away but turned back around to face Cooper. She leaned up to kiss him slowly wrapping her arms around his neck, as the kiss got deeper Maxie slowly pulled away. It was as if she was trying to show him what he would be missing if he wasn't with her.

Cooper was brought out of his thought by Maxie's voice as she entered the room.

"You can come out now,"

Cooper slowly opened the closet door and stepped out, leaving the closet door open because in the past week he had spent in Maxie's room he quickly learned she always picked out her outfit for work the night before.

Maxie looked at the clock. It read: 8:15 P.M. Cooper sat on the bed and watched as Maxie did her nightly routine: look through her closet until she found what she thought was the perfect outfit. Tonight it was a white short sleeve shirt that tapered in at the waist along with black embroidered jeans.

As Maxie was trying to find a pair of shoes to go with her outfit she thought about the two times she and Cooper had kissed. She sighed as she remembered how natural it felt. After finding a pair of slip on shoes with silver sequins she put them next to her nightstand and plopped down on the bed next to Cooper. After a few minutes of silence Cooper spoke up.

"We can't avoid talking about what's going on forever, we have to talk about it eventually," Cooper said gently.

"I know," Maxie said quietly.

She knew he was talking about the kiss the previous night and the one earlier that day but, she knew he was also talking about him finding a place to live.

With that they sat in silence as they watched the T.V.

Later that night Cooper laid awake thinking about the same thing he'd thought about all day: Maxie and the kiss in the hotel suite but, also the girlfriend he had no commitment to. It should've been a no brainer because what he had with his girlfriend wasn't what you would call a relationship; she just used him to get money. With Maxie it was different because he genuinely cared about her. Coopers thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his cell phone vibrating. He picked it up and opened it, careful not to wake Maxie. He had a new text message. It read: _Miss U----Chasity._

Cooper knew even if she did miss him she was still angry at him for testing into the army and leaving her when he was eighteen. He didn't blame her for being mad at him----she had every right to be.With that Cooper shut his phone and tried to sleep.

* * *

A/N:You can try and guess who Chasity is but she might not be who you're thinking. 


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Maxie groaned as she opened her eyes to see what time it said on her digital clock. It read: 7:05 A.M.

"How can you stand to get up this early?" Maxie asked hearing Cooper move around the room.

"I don't know, I'm a light sleeper I guess,"

Maxie nodded and was ready to speak when she heard Georgie's voice outside the door.

"Maxie get up,"

I'm up," Maxie said springing out of bed as if someone had set firecrackers off in her bed.

Just as Maxie thought Georgie was getting ready to head back to her room, she heard her voice again.

"Hey Maxie, are you going to go to your classes tonight at PCU?"

Maxie gave a questioning look.

"Why? Who wants to know?" Maxie asked even though she had an idea who it was.

"Mac," Georgie answered.

Maxie rolled her eyes and mumbled something cooper couldn't quite hear.

"I might but don't press me on it," Maxie said knowing the next thing out of Georgie's mouth would be a long lecture why she should go.

She sighed with relief when she heard Georgie sigh and walk down the hall to her bedroom.

Cooper wanted to ask about her not wanting to go to PCU but decided to wait a little while before he did. After that, he and Maxie proceeded to get ready.

Later that day Cooper looked up to see Maxie heading towards him.

"Hey," Maxie said once she reached him.

"Hey," Cooper replied.

Even though some of the awkwardness from the kiss had gone away, it was still there.

A silence fell between them.

"Earlier when your sister asked you if you were going to your classes at PCU you said you weren't sure. Why don't you want to go?" Cooper asked breaking the silence that had been hanging between them.

Maxie sighed.

"I don't want to go because during the summer when I was doing all the stuff to get Lucky's attention I stopped going to my classes, so it would take forever for me to catch up,"

"Plus, the class I took was geared toward writing about fashion like you would if you were on staff at a magazine," Maxie added.

"I don't see the problem; you said your dream job was to work for a fashion magazine this class could help you do that,"

Maxie sighed.

"Yeah, but like I told you when we were stuck in the vault my writing skills stink so, that pretty much guarantees I'd fail the class,"

"Okay but what did I tell you when we were talking about it?"

"You asked me why I'd just work in retail all my life when I could be so much more," Maxie said remembering the conversation they'd had…

"So what were you doing here tonight?"

"I work at the boutique. It's the only store in town that sells couture."

"Oh, right -- fashion."

"High-end fashion, all of the hottest designers."

"Do you like working retail?"

"Well, it's not as if I have a lot of options. I'm not smart like my sister or driven like my cousin. Pretty much, the only thing I've ever been really good at is lying, which is exactly why this job is perfect for me. I have no problem telling people why they need to buy some extremely expensive outfit that really should only be worn by an anorexic model from Milan. And, who knows? Maybe in a few years, I'll make manager."

"Why would you want to do that when you could be so much more?"

"I meant that you know," Cooper said bringing Maxie out of her thoughts.

Maxie offered a small smile.

"Fine I'll go but the class starts right after I get off work so it'll be late when I get home,"

"That's no problem, I think I've become an expert on how to get in through your bedroom window by now," Cooper said teasingly.

Maxie laughed.

"Okay but Maybe tomorrow morning we could go to Kelly's for breakfast so we don't have to inhale our food because we're afraid one of my family members will catch us,"

"Sure. That sounds good to me," Cooper said.

With that, Maxie left Metro Court and headed to PCU.

Maxie sat at her desk listening to the professor explain the assignment.

"For this assignment you have to act as if you're on the staff of a fashion magazine and write an article that is two pages long. You have to have a rough draft and a final draft. The final draft has to be typed and edited,"

_How am I supposed to pull this off?_ Maxie asked herself as she resisted the urge to groan. Her thoughts were interrupted by the professor speaking again.

"You can also include pictures from fashion websites just make sure you credit the website, you're dismissed,"

With that, everyone got up and left the classroom.

* * *

A/N: Next chapter look for more bonding while watching Greys Anatomy. Can you tell I like greys Anatomy? LOL 


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Cooper opened his eyes when he felt another piece of crumpled up notebook paper that had missed the trash can hit his head.

"Maxie," Cooper said in attempt to get her attention.

"Huh?" Maxie asked pulling the ear buds from her ipod out of her ears.

Cooper didn't have to answer because Maxie noticed all the crumpled up notebook paper near where Cooper usually slept.

Maxie bit her bottom lip and smiled slightly.

"I'm sorry,"

Cooper waved his hand dismissively.

"Don't worry about,"

Cooper climbed up on the bed next to Maxie.

"So you can't think of anything huh?"

"I can't think of anything, I'm good at mixing and match outfits and telling people why they should wear something, I'm not good at writing about it,"

"Well the professor said it had to be like a magazine article right?" Cooper asked.

"Yeah,"

"Well maybe you could make it like a fashion advice column or something," Cooper advised.

Maxie smiled.

"That could definitely work; you're good you know that?"

Cooper smiled.

"You could use a break though couldn't you?"

"Oh, what would make you think that?" Maxie asked teasingly.

"I don't know maybe the fact you've been working on this since you got home and that was eight o'clock and now it's twelve thirty,"

"Well what did you have in mind?" Maxie asked.

"We could watch Greys Anatomy," Cooper suggested.

Maxie gave him a puzzled look.

"But on Sunday nights it on at eleven and it doesn't come on again until Thursday,"

"It's not going to be on Thursday so they decided to put a new one on tonight, I checked,"

"Well turn it on then," Maxie said eagerly.

Cooper laughed and turned on the TV.

"I'm not sure if I'm going to like that," Maxie said referring to the talk of Izzie having feelings for George.

"Why not?" Cooper asked turning his attention away from the TV and looking at Maxie.

"Well because they have a really good friendship and if they get romantically involved and it doesn't work out that could ruin the friendship,"

"So are you saying that friends shouldn't ever get involved romantically so the friendship stays intact?" Cooper asked.

"Well, no I'm not saying that, it depends on the friendship, a friendship like theirs could get ruined if they got involved romantically if it didn't work out because they've know each other for so long. But maybe a friendship where the two people were still close and trusted each other could work if they decided to be more than just friends," Maxie explained knowing they weren't talking about George and Izzie anymore.

Without realizing it the space between them had closed and their lips were inches apart. They were almost kissing when Maxie pulled back.

"We can't do this, not until you decide where I fit in," Maxie said firmly.

Cooper nodded.

He didn't want to lead her on; he would wait until he broke things off with his girlfriend.

"Okay, I understand,"

"We should go to bed," Maxie said looking at the clock and seeing it was almost two o'clock.

"Okay," Cooper said getting off the bed and lying back down on the rug.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Cooper watched Maxie as she worked on typing the final draft of the writing assignment she had been given in one of her classes earlier that week. After he had suggested she write it like a fashion advice column it had only taken her a few days to get the rough draft finished. Even though they had talked about work and the school assignment, they avoided two topics, the fact he would have to find a place to live soon and the fact they had almost kissed on Sunday night. Coopers thoughts were interrupted by Maxie coming over and plopping down on the bed.

"You finished it?" Cooper asked referring to the two pieces of paper in Maxie's hand.

"Yeah, the professor said that even though we edited it we should have someone else look at it just in case we missed anything, will you look at it for me?"

"Sure," Cooper said taking the papers from Maxie's hand.

After taking, a few minutes to read what Maxie wrote Cooper spoke up.

"This is really good Maxie,"

Maxie gave him a surprised look.

"Really?"

Cooper smiled slightly.

"Why do you act so surprised?"

"Well like I told you before I don't have the best writing skills,"

Cooper shook his head.

"You just don't give yourself enough credit,"

Maxie smiled.

"So what do you want to do?"

"We could go to Kelly's since we didn't get to go on Monday because we got called into work," Maxie suggested.

"That sounds good to me," Cooper said.

With that, they left for Kelly's.

At Kelly's Maxie and Cooper were sharing a brownie fudge cake.

"Hey!" Maxie exclaimed smacking Coopers arm playfully as he went for a bite of the brownie.

"Stingy!" Cooper said backing away from the brownie.

"Hey I like my chocolate---maybe too much,"

Cooper laughed.

"Yeah, you think?"

"Hey you're talking to a girl who on her birthday along with the help of her best friends ate a whole cookie cake,"

"Uh-huh and when did you do this?" Cooper asked stealing pieces of brownie when Maxie wasn't looking.

"We started it when we were in sixth grade and it lasted until our junior year of high school, we called it our birthday party method,"

"Do I even want to know the steps to that method?" Cooper asked.

"Nah, it was girly stuff mostly,"

Cooper nodded.

They fell silent because they knew the subject that was likely to come up next.

"You know I'm going to have to find a place to live soon," Cooper said seeing Maxie tense up, it was obvious she disliked the idea as much as he did.

"I know,"

"You know I'm not going to leave Port Charles, I can't after getting the job at Metro,"

Plus I don't want to leave you. Cooper thought to himself.

"I know… I think I might have an idea where you can stay," Maxie said the reluctance evident in her voice.

"Where?" Cooper asked.

"Well they have some rooms here for rent you could look at,"

"That could work, Maybe I'll check it out before we leave,"

"Okay," Maxie said taking the last bite of brownie.

Back at Maxie's house Cooper was packed and ready to leave. Before they had left Kelly's he had checked with the owner, Mike and decided to rent a room.

"I better go," Cooper said softly.

"Yeah you don't want Georgie or Mac to come barging into my bedroom like they seem to be doing so frequently now," Maxie said rolling her eyes hoping the sarcasm would hide the sadness in her voice.

"Like I told you before I'm not leaving Port Charles, I'm just going to be living at Kelly's. I wouldn't be able to leave you now---not after everything that's happened," Cooper said seeing through Maxie's sarcastic remarks.

Crap! Sometimes I hate the fact he can read me so well. Maxie thought to herself.

A silence fell over them but they kept inching closer to each other. Their lips were inches apart, there was no hesitation like a week earlier when they had almost kissed and unlike the two times before it was gentle and affectionate but that didn't make it any less pleasurable…that actually made it even better. After what seemed like forever, they pulled away.

"I should go," Cooper said squeezing Maxie's hand lightly.

"Yeah you should," Maxie said reluctantly letting go of his hand.

With that, Cooper quietly climbed out the window leaving Maxie to stare after him.


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Cooper opened the door to the room he rented above Kelly's. He looked around the room as he threw his duffel bag on the bed; it was small but still comfortable. As he started to unpack, his thoughts drifted to Maxie, as they had been doing a lot lately. He thought about her wanting to know where she fit in with him having a girlfriend, she deserved to know where she fit in with everything that was going on between them.

Cooper picked up the phone and started dialing her number pretty much knowing what the first words out of his mouth would be.

"Did you get the money?" She asked curiously, as she picked up the phone.

Cooper rolled his eyes.

"No Alex, I didn't,"

"Then why are you calling me?" Alex asked quickly becoming hostile.

"I'm breaking off our agreement or whatever the heck you want to refer to it as," Cooper explained.

Alex answered without hesitation.

"That's fine with me,"

Without even saying goodbye, they hung up but Cooper wasn't surprised because what they had wasn't really considered a relationship. Not giving Alex another thought, he picked up the phone and called Maxie.

"You said you wanted to talk to me and it was important, what was it?" Maxie asked once she sat down at the table.

"You remember those conversations we had where you said you wanted to know where you fit in before we took it any further."

"Yeah," Maxie replied.

"I broke things off with my girlfriend,"

"You did? How did she---" Maxie was cut off by the voice of a girl that looked to be about the age of fifteen or sixteen walking up to there table.

"Cooper," the girl said with very little emotion in her voice.

"Chasity," Cooper replied.

Maxie glanced up at Cooper hoping he'd give her any indication of what was going on.

"Who are you?" Maxie asked.

"I'm his sister,"


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"His sister?" Maxie asked realizing this must have been what he left out when he told her about his father leaving and his mother throwing herself into work.

"Oh. He didn't tell you he had a sister? I'm not surprised considering he got into the army and left me to deal with our mother who had been consumed with her work for six years," Chasity said sending a glare in Cooper's direction.

"Chas," Cooper said quietly.

"Don't---don't call me that, you lost the right to call me by my nickname when you left," Chasity said hoping the anger in her voice made the sadness less noticeable.

"Look we should go upstairs and talk about this okay?"

"Fine," Chasity said reluctantly after a few minutes and started up the stairs.

"Do you want me to go upstairs and be back up?" Maxie asked.

"No I think I can handle it, but can you meet me back here in a little while?"

"Sure," Maxie said.

Cooper headed up the stairs a few minutes after Maxie left.

Once upstairs Cooper got out the key to his room and unlocked the door.

"What are you doing here?" Cooper asked once they got into the room.

"I came here to see you, what do you think I'm doing here," Chasity said plopping down on the bed.

"I mean why are you here instead of in school?"

"Spring break,"

Cooper nodded.

"Does mom know you came here?"

"Like she would really care," Chasity replied sarcastically.

When Chasity knew she wasn't going to get a reaction out of Cooper with her comment she spoke up again.

"No, mom doesn't know I left but she will eventually,"

"You know she'll be mad when she finds out you left," Cooper pointed out.

"It won't matter anyway because she's grounded me already,"

"What did you do to make her ground you?" Cooper asked.

"Of course you would assume I did something bad,"

"Okay, what happened?" Cooper asked.

"It was stupid,"

"What did you do Chasity?" Cooper prodded.

"You know how she was; she only acted like a parent when she thought she had to discipline one of us or when it was convenient for her. You know how once I was older and I liked to sleep in late but I couldn't do it on week days because of school? It was one of those things, she got mad and grounded me from going to this thing I had wanted to do with my friends and she grounded me from the phone,"

"But you would've know what happened if you had been there, but you weren't because you left with your best buddy Logan," Chasity added feeling herself get more defensive.

"I know you're mad and you have every right to be but you knew I couldn't live at home forever,"

Chasity gave a frustrated sigh.

"I know that, but you could've but you could've at least lived in the general area you didn't have to go as far away as you did,"

Cooper was getting ready to speak but Chasity cut him off.

"Don't say it was because the army thing either, you were in the service for two years and it's been three since you left you could've at least contacted me,"

"I know I could've and I was wrong not to,"

Chasity crossed her arms over her chest and tried to choke back the lump in her throat, she didn't like the fact she was almost crying over this because that meant she wasn't as mad at him and she was remembering how much she missed him when he first left, she found it easier to stay mad at him because that way if he left again it might not hurt so much.

"Look can we talk about the rest of this later?"

Without a word Chasity left Kelly's but not before body slamming a guy and almost spilling his coffee.


	15. Chapter 14

A/N: Since Chasity is only 15 I had to age some of the kids to fit her age just thought I'd let you know that before you started reading :)

* * *

Chapter 14

"I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention," Chasity said apologetically.

"It's no problem, my names Spencer by the way,"

"Mines Chasity," Chasity said for the first time really looking at Spencer seeing that he had dirty blonde hair and brown eyes.

"I haven't seen you around here or at School before, did you just move here?"

"No actually, I'm on spring break and I'm here visiting my brother,"

Spencer nodded.

"Hey, I was going to go meet one of my friends from school at the Pizza Shack you're welcome to come if you want to," Spencer offered.

Chasity thought about it and it sounded like a much better idea than staying at Kelly's and waiting to get into another argument with Cooper.

"Sure I'll go,"

With that, they left Kelly's.

Maxie walked up to the door of the room Cooper was staying in and gently knocked on it. When he opened the door, she could tell right away that things hadn't gone well with his sister. Once she was in the room and the door was, closed Maxie spoke up.

"I'm guessing it would be safe to say things didn't go well with Chasity,"

"Yeah we got into an argument and she ran off,"

"What exactly happened that mad her so mad at you? I get she's mad about you going into the army it just seems like she mad about more than that," Maxie said.

Cooper sighed.

"You already know about how I was the basically the only one who took care of her after our mother threw herself into work. Well my senior year I met Logan Hayes and that's how I met the non-commitment girlfriend. He was the one that brought up the army idea and we discussed it and finally decided to do it. When I told Chasity about it she fought me on it and continued to do so until the week I was supposed to be shipped out and then we didn't talk as much. But she and Logan disagreed on things a long time before the army thing,"

"So she was jealous because you were hanging out with Logan instead of her," Maxie guessed.

"Yeah that was part of it but she didn't want to be left alone with our mother because our mother had this thing where she wouldn't act like a parent unless it was convenient for her and most of that was directed towards Chasity once I got old enough to leave," 

Maxie remembered when they were in the vault after he got rid of the tough exterior all he had tried to do was protect her, now she was starting to see where his protective nature came from.

"You said you guys were close so another reason she wouldn't want you to leave because she would miss you,"

"Yeah but it sure doesn't seem like she misses me now," Cooper said referring to the argument he and Chasity had earlier.

Maxie slid her hand under the table and intertwined her fingers with Coopers.

"I'm sure she does miss you, but she probably finds it easier to be angry at you because she's afraid you'll leave again and doesn't want to get emotionally attached, that way it won't hurt as much," Maxie explained.

"You sound like your speaking from experience, I'm guessing it's because your mom?"

"Well yeah but, for some reason I was born with the talent of driving people away my mom, Mac all because I had a fear of being left and the people that I didn't push away had a tendency to die and all that did was make me angry and resentful for being left in the first place,"

Without saying anything, Cooper leaned forward and gently kissed Maxie as they tried to forget the things going on around them…For a moment anyway.

When Chasity and Spencer got to the Pizza Shack, they walked over to a table where a girl with long brown hair and eyes was sitting.

"Kristina this is Chasity, Chasity this is Kristina," Spencer said introducing the two girls.

"Hi," the two girls said in unison.

The three exchanged glances and then busted out laughing.

After the laughter, subsided Spencer and Chasity sat down at the table.

"So do you go to Port Charles high?" Kristina asked unaware of the fact that Spencer had asked almost the same question at Kelly's.

"No actually, I'm here visiting my older brother while I'm on spring break,"

Kristina nodded.

"I know I couldn't wait for spring break to start, I got so tired of having to sit in Computers class having to take notes,"

"I couldn't either I hated my P.E. class," Chasity said cringing at the thought of playing dodge ball.

"I hate having to switch into gym shoes because I can never get to class on time,"

"I know I wear those baby doll flats and they hurt your feet so bad," Chasity said.

Spencer just sat there and rolled his eyes.

"I wear those too but Spencer always gets mad because I complain about it,"

"Yeah well when you complain about it all the time it gets annoying,"

Spencer turned his attention on Chasity.

"Please tell me you don't complain about it like she does,"

"I don't think I complain about it,"

"Okay we'll get along fine then,"

After that, the three continued to talk about different things.


	16. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

After leaving the Pizza Shack Chasity found herself back at Kelly's since she really had no place to stay but Cooper's room. She walked up the stairs and reluctantly knocked on the door.

So much for my avoidance tactic. Chasity thought to herself.

She shook her head slightly. All she had to do was try to distance herself the way she had been doing, that way she wouldn't get hurt again.

About that time, Cooper opened the door.

"I need to stay here for a little while okay?" Chasity said getting straight to the point.

Without waiting for a response, she walked into the room and put her stuff on the floor.

"I'll sleep on the floor so you can take the bed," Cooper offered.

"No it's your room you take the bed," Chasity said holding up a duffel bag with a sleeping bag in it.

Cooper didn't feel like fighting with Chasity and it was apparent she had her mind made up so he slept in the bed and she slept in the sleeping bag.

The next morning Cooper walked over to the table he saw Maxie sitting at and sat across from her. Before anything else was said, Maxie and Cooper leaned across the table and kissed each other.

"So did you get through to Chasity because I'm guessing she had to stay at your place," Maxie asked once they pulled away.

"She stayed at my place and no, I didn't get through to her because we barely spoke,"

Maxie nodded.

"I'm sorry we haven't really gotten a chance talk about what's going on with us," Cooper said apologetically.

Maxie shook her head.

"I understand with your sister coming back you have to worry about that. I think I might have an idea to get through to her," Maxie said.

"How?" Cooper asked curiously.

"Well since you talking to her isn't really working I could try to talk to her, I mean we have the mommy abandonment issue in common,"

"But I'm the one she's mad at," Cooper pointed out.

"Yeah for leaving her with your mother so you're probably not the only one she angry with, she's probably just as angry with your mom,"

Cooper thought about what Maxie had suggested and it could work, it was definitely worth a shot because what he was doing obviously wasn't working.

"We could try it but when would you talk to her?"

"Well I have to work until later this evening so I could talk to her then or since she's on spring break I'm sure she won't stay in the room above Kelly's all day, maybe she'll go to Metro Court to shop or something,"

"I doubt it she knows I work at Metro court,"

"Well I'll just have to stick with my first idea and talk to her after work and don't worry about how I'm going to do it, I'll figure something out," Maxie said.

"Okay,"

Cooper trusted Maxie he just wasn't sure how Chasity would react.

"I have to get to work," Maxie said looking at the wall clock.

"Okay I'll see you when my shift starts,"

With that, Maxie left Kelly's.

Cooper was still sitting at the table eating his breakfast when he saw Chasity come down the stairs and start walking towards his table. When she reached the table, she sat in the chair Maxie had previously occupied.

"No," Cooper said.

He knew that look, she wanted something and she was going to try to talk him into it---even if she was mad.

"Since I have to stay here all week and your room above Kelly's is so small I was wondering if I could move into one of the rooms like one across from yours," Chasity suggested ignoring the fact Cooper already said no.

Without hesitation, Cooper gave her his answer.

"Like I said before no, no way are you going to move into one of the rooms above Kelly's, even if it is across from mine,"

"Why not?" Chasity asked annoyance evident in her voice.

"You're only fifteen, that's why,"

"I'll be sixteen in June," Chasity protested.

"That still doesn't make it any better Chas; you're still too young,"

"Well I've pretty much lived on my own since you left anyway so I don't see a problem,"

"You shouldn't have had to live on your own but, you're still too young to do it,"

Chasity sighed and resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"Will you at least think about it? Please?"

"Maybe," Cooper replied.

Chasity smiled slightly but caught herself.

"Thank you,"

With that, Chasity got up and left Kelly's.


	17. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Chasity walked onto the docks and sat on the bench. She had thought about going to the Pizza Shack again since the only two teen hangouts were there and Kelly's but she decided against it. After a few minutes, she found herself thinking about the way things were before Cooper left. They never really fought over much just the bathroom in the morning on occasion. One of the other reasons they got along so well was because they listened to each other, she listened to Cooper and he listened to her. She shook her head slightly as she remembered the many times she went to him, rambled on, and on about why some guy was so cute or why that guy was being a jerk. He just sat quietly and listened until she was done talking he would always try to help her handle the situation…even if he wasn't sure how and that was more than their mother ever did. Chasity felt a tear roll down her cheek as she remembered the week before he left. Once she knew he was leaving and there was nothing she could do to stop him she tried her best to distance herself.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Spencer walking up on the docks. Chasity wiped away what was now a stream of tears running down her cheeks.

"You okay?" Spencer asked seeing a stray tear running down Chasity's cheek.

"Yeah I'm fine," Chasity, said hoping she sounded convincing.

Spencer didn't say anything he just sat down next to her.

"I'll ask you again, what's wrong?"

"You're not going to give up on this are you?"

"Well I'm not going to push you to tell me something you don't want to but, I would like to know what's wrong,"

Chasity sighed.

"Okay I'll tell you,"

Maxie walked into the lobby and walked up to Cooper who was standing in the middle of the lobby.

"Hi," Maxie said once she reached him.

"Hi," Cooper replied.

Automatically Maxie knew something was up.

"Did something happen at Kelly's after I left?"

"No not really, Chasity and I just had one of our discussions,"

"What happened?" Maxie asked.

"She wants to move into one of the rooms above Kelly's and I'm not sure I want her to," Cooper explained.

Maxie was quiet for a minute.

Cooper studied Maxie for a moment, he knew she was up to something he just wasn't sure what.

"Maxie what are you up to? You only get this quiet when you're thinking about doing something,"

"Don't worry it's nothing bad, I was just thinking maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea for her to get a room at Kelly's. I mean since I'm at Kelly's a lot I could offer to help her with her room and causally bring up the subject of her being mad at her and get through to her that way,"

Cooper thought about it for a second and it could work.

"Okay it sounds like it might work, I guess I'll text message her and tell her she can move into the room above Kelly's,"

"Okay, I'll just think of a way to run into her at Kelly's and talk to her about it," Maxie said.

"Okay,"

With that, Maxie headed back towards the boutique.

"So he just left you to deal with your mother?" Spencer asked after listening to what Chasity told him.

"Well yeah, but I still think he wouldn't have left if his friend Logan Hayes hadn't hooked him up with the non-commitment girlfriend and suggested the army idea,"

"So you resent him for leaving?" Spencer asked.

Chasity bit her bottom lip.

"I don't know, maybe I do resent him but when he first left I missed him a lot and I got tired of it so I found it easier to be angry with him. I think I just used the anger as a defense mechanism."

Spencer sighed.

"Don't take this the wrong way but, while I think you have every right to be angry with your brother don't you think you should at least try to forgive him? I don't mean right away but eventually because he may not have been there for three years but he's here now,"

Chasity smiled slightly.

She had to admit it, Spencer was right Cooper may not have been in her life for three years but he was there now and she should try. She just wasn't sure she wanted to completely forgive him yet.

"I might be able to forgive him, but not right away,"

Spencer nodded in understanding.

"So did I help any?"

Chasity smiled.

"Yeah. You actually helped a lot,"

"Good. If you don't want me to tell Kristina about this I won't," Spencer said.

"Well, she'll find out eventually so it's okay if she does find out but I'm not sure I want her to find out right away,"

"I won't tell her anything," Spencer promised as they stood up.

"Thank you," Chasity replied quietly.

"No problem,"

With that, they walked away from the docks.


	18. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Later that evening Maxie was in her room getting ready to go to Kelly's to talk to Chasity when she heard a knock on her door.

"Come in,"

"Hey Maxie can I ask you a question?" Georgie asked once she walked into the room.

"Sure,"

"Who is that guy you've been hanging out with at Kelly's?"

Maxie searched her brain for any story that wouldn't get Cooper in trouble.

"His names Cooper, he goes to PCU and works at Metro Court,"

Georgie nodded.

"Are you guys dating?"

"Yeah kind of. Why do you want to know?" Maxie asked curiously.

"I don't know, I've just seen you guys together when I work and you guys look like you're close,"

Maxie sighed wondering if she would have to get defensive.

"Are you going to object to this relationship since it seems like you and everyone else object to what I do or who I'm with?"

"No Maxie, I actually think it's a good thing because over the past few weeks it seems like you've been trying to do better, and if Cooper is helping you do that I don't have a problem with it. Mac on the other hand knowing the way he is with us and guys is another story,"

Maxie smiled.

"Don't worry I can handle Mac,"

Georgie just smiled and left the room.

After Maxie was sure Georgie was back in her room, she left the house for Kelly's.

Maxie walked into Kelly's and Spotted Chasity at one of the back tables. She walked over and sat in the chair from her. After a few seconds, Chasity looked up from reading the text message on her phone she had been pretending to be so interested in.

"What do you want?"

"Nice talking to you too," Maxie, replied sarcastically.

"What do you want?" Chasity repeated.

"Do you know if Cooper is going to let you move into one of the rooms above Kelly's?"

"You should know considering how close you and Coop are," Chasity said looking down at her phone again.

Maxie sighed Chasity just kept reminding her more and more of the way she was in high school.

"Look will you just answer the question?"

"Fine he said I could move into a room above Kelly's, happy now?"

"Well I might be able to help you decorate the room if you want me to," Maxie offered.

"No thanks, you're just doing this because---" Chasity was cut off by Maxie.

"This isn't just because of Cooper, we don't even have to talk about him if you don't want to," Maxie lied.

"Fine but I swear if you bring Cooper up all bets are off,"

"Hey I said we didn't have to talk about him if you didn't want to,"

Chasity rolled her eyes and thought _what have I gotten myself into?_

After that, Maxie walked out of Kelly's and smiled to herself and then thought _Phase one of getting Chasity to forgive Cooper complete._


	19. Chapter 18

A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update the website wouldn't work for me for a few days.

* * *

Chapter 18

It had been two days since Chasity and Maxie had talked at Kelly's which meant she only had three days of spring break left but she and Maxie were unpacking anyway.

"What's this?" Maxie asked pulling a picture out if the duffel bag breaking the silence that had hung between them.

"Oh, that's a picture of Cooper and I that was taken his junior year," Chasity said taking the picture out of Maxie's hand smiling slightly.

Maxie was surprised because this was the first time she had seen Chasity express any other emotion besides anger or hurt towards Cooper.

"Where were you guys in this picture?"

"It was the party my fifth grade class had at the end of the school year; Cooper skipped his fifth period class to go to it since our mom never bothered to do stuff like that. He actually always did that kind of stuff when I had class parties," Chasity explained.

"You guys were pretty close weren't you?" Maxie asked since it seemed like Chasity was being the most open she'd been since she came to Port Charles.

"Yeah we were close…before Logan came into the picture. I never got what Cooper saw in him but I never said anything because I didn't want to hurt him because he's really been the only person I could depend on, or at least until he left,"

After saying that Chasity realized she had let her guard down and told Maxie things she'd never told anyone else.

"I thought you said we didn't have to talk about my brother,"

"You're right we don't have to unless… you want to," Maxie said knowing Chasity had put her guard back up.

"Well I don't want to anymore," Chasity said going back to unpacking.

Maxie just nodded and went back to working.

At the Metro Court Cooper was standing in the middle of the lobby. He glanced at the wall clock; Maxie should've been at Chasity's place helping her unpack. Cooper sighed and shut his eyes for a second. He and Maxie had talked on the phone earlier that morning and she had noticed something was off but he had told her it was nothing because he had felt tired and he figured it would pass---it hadn't. He opened his eyes again right before Jax started walking by. Jax stopped once he reached where Cooper was standing.

"Cooper you okay?"

"Yes sir, I'm just tired that's all," Cooper said.

"I can find someone to cover the rest of your shift if you want to go ahead and go home," Jax said.

"Thank you sir,"

"No problem,"

With that Cooper left Metro Court and headed to GH because he knew something wasn't right.

Back at Kelly's Maxie and Chasity still worked in complete silence. Neither of them had said a word since their brief talk about Cooper. Chasity hadn't said anything because she didn't want to reveal anymore than she already had, Maxie hadn't said anything because she didn't want to push too hard.

"You know how I said Cooper and I were really close?" Chasity asked wondering why she was willingly bringing Cooper up again.

"Yeah,"

"Well, when he left it kind of felt like I was losing my best friend. I mean sure I had my friends at school but there was things I couldn't tell them that I could tell him,"

"I know what you mean because a lot of people in my life I've either pushed away or they left so I never felt like I had anyone that supported me until I met Cooper,"

"I thought you guys were more than just friends,"

"Well we are but---" Maxie was cut off by the phone ringing.

"Hello," Maxie said once she picked up the phone.

Chasity stood watching until Maxie hung up the phone.

"Who was that?"

"That was my cousin Robin, she said Cooper's been admitted to GH,"

Chasity didn't even say anything she just headed straight out the Door and Maxie did the same.


	20. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Maxie and Chasity sat in the waiting room at GH as they had been told to do.

"Will you stop that?" Maxie asked referring to Chasity constantly tapping her foot.

"Sorry,"

Chasity knew the only time she constantly tapped her foot was when she was nervous or scared and whether she wanted to admit or not she was really scared something was wrong. She sighed as something Spencer had said at the docks kept repeating in her head…

"He may not have been there for three years but he's here now,"

Before Chasity could think about it anymore Robin came into the waiting room.

"How is he?" Maxie asked standing up.

"He still has a pretty high fever but we have him on fever reducers, we want to keep him overnight just to be safe though," Robin said noticing Maxie's concern.

"Can we go in and see him?" Maxie asked.

"Sure I don't see why not, go ahead,"

Maxie just nodded and started heading for Cooper's room but stopped when she realized Chasity wasn't behind her.

"Aren't you coming?"

"No you go ahead," Chasity said quietly.

Maxie sighed.

"You know he'll want to see you too, he understands why you're mad at him and he doesn't hold that against you,"

Chasity didn't say anything she just followed Maxie.

Maxie walked into the room and walked over to the bed while Chasity stood against the wall.

"What happened? When I talked to you on the phone earlier you seemed fine,"

"I don't know when I talked to you earlier I felt tired but didn't think anything of it, but don't worry I'm fine," Cooper said lightly squeezing Maxie's hand.

Maxie nodded and leaned down to kiss Cooper gently on the lips. After they pulled away Maxie looked in Chasity's direction.

"I think you two should talk,"

Maxie started to walk out of the room but stopped to whisper in Chasity's ear.

"Just tell him what you told me,"

After Maxie left the room Chasity sat in the chair next to the bed.

"Look, I know I've been acting like a brat ever since I came to Port Charles and that's putting it nicely. But what I'm trying to say is I'm sorry for the way I've acted," Chasity said after a long silence.

"You had every right to be mad at me Chas, I shouldn't have just left you to deal with mom knowing the way she is and I should've contacted you after I got out of the service," Cooper said apologetically.

"You're right I was mad about you not contacting me but that wasn't the only reason," Chasity said remembering back to what she had told Maxie…

"Well, when he left it kind of felt like I was losing my best friend. I mean sure I had my friends at school but there was things I couldn't tell them that I could tell him,"

Chasity was brought out of her thoughts by Cooper speaking up.

"What was the other reason?"

Chasity sighed.

"It was a defense thing because I was hurt because I felt like the one person I depended on and confided in left me,"

"Like I said before I shouldn't have left you with mom, I'm sorry," Cooper apologized.

Chasity smiled.

"While I don't agree with all the stuff you did I accept it because I'm just glad to have my big brother back," Chasity said standing up and hugging Cooper.

Maxie started to walk in the room but stopped in the doorway when she saw Cooper and Chasity hugging.

"I think someone else wants your attention," Chasity said seeing Maxie in the doorway.

Maxie smiled as Chasity got up and left the room.

"So you guys are good now?" Maxie asked sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Yeah I think so,"

"That's good," Maxie said putting her legs up and lying next to Cooper.

A comfortable silence fell over them as Cooper gently stroked Maxie's hair.

After a few minutes Maxie spoke up.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Robin said I just had a fever, I'm fine I promise," Cooper said not missing the concern in Maxie's voice.

"Okay," Maxie said snuggling in closer to Cooper.

Soon after that both Maxie and Cooper fell asleep.


	21. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

The next morning Maxie woke up to find herself in the same position as she was the night before with her head rested on Cooper's chest. She smiled slightly and decided to go back to sleep not wanting to ruin the moment. Just as she was about to go back to sleep Robin and Patrick came in and that caused Cooper to wake up.

"We have your release papers," Robin said.

"That doesn't mean you can get up and go back to work right away though," Patrick added.

"I know," Cooper replied.

Maxie let her eyes dance between Patrick and Robin, The whole family knew how their break up had affected Robin but they still didn't buy why she broke up with Patrick it just didn't make sense. Cooper noticed Maxie glancing between Patrick and Robin and wondered what it was about but he decided to ask her after they left.

"Okay so I think you're good to go now," Robin said.

After that Robin and Patrick left the room and Maxie heard them bickering about something, she just wasn't sure if that was a good or bad sign.

"What was that about?" Cooper asked once Robin and Patrick were out of earshot.

"Patrick and Robin? They're broken up because Robin is claiming she's in love with Nikolas Cassidine and it doesn't make any sense what so ever,"

"Why not?"

"It doesn't make any sense because the week before this thing with Nikolas started Robin couldn't have been anymore in love with Patrick, but Mac says Georgie and I can't play matchmaker because they're too stubborn to listen and have to figure it out themselves," Maxie explained.

"Speaking of Mac, won't he be mad you didn't tell him where you were last night?"

"Don't worry about it, I'll take care of it then I'll meet you back at your place at Kelly's and make sure you do what Robin and Patrick told you to do,"

"Oh, I like the sound of that," Cooper said smiling.

"I thought you would," Maxie said kissing him before leaving.

Maxie walked through the front door bracing herself for the third degree from Mac.

"Where were you last night Maxie?" Mac asked as soon as Maxie walked into the living room.

"I was at GH…one of my friends that go to PCU and work with me got sick and didn't have anyone to stay with them so I offered to stay,"

"Why didn't you call---" Mac was cut off by Georgie who heard the conversation as she came down the stairs.

"Cooper had to stay at GH? What happened?"

Maxie cringed she could've came up with an excuse and gotten away with it but not now.

"So this "friend" was a guy?" Mac asked.

"Yes," Maxie said shooting Georgie a look.

"You know the rules Maxie,"

"I know but---" Maxie was again cut off by Georgie.

"Mac, I've seen Cooper and Maxie together at Kelly's and it seems like he makes her really happy and haven't you noticed how she's been trying harder here lately? She didn't start doing all of that until she started hanging around with him; he makes her want to do better,"

Maxie smiled at Georgie and Georgie smiled back.

Mac sighed.

"Georgie does make a point, if you like Cooper and he's helping you this much I don't see a problem but, I want to get to know him better,"

Maxie nodded.

"What do you want to do?"

"I think he should come over for dinner tomorrow night,"

Maxie wanted to roll her eyes because she thought Mac was so old fashioned sometimes but she just nodded.

"Okay I'll talk to him about it,"

Mac nodded and Maxie headed up the stairs with Georgie behind her.

When they were halfway up the stairs out of hearing distance Maxie stopped Georgie.

"Hey, thanks for covering for me downstairs,"

"No problem, it seems like you really care about Cooper and I didn't want you to get in trouble,"

Maxie smiled and then she and Georgie went separate ways, Georgie to her room and Maxie to hers so she could get ready to go to Kelly's.

Cooper walked up to the door of his room at Kelly's. He had been able to leave GH shortly after Maxie. He started to unlock the door when he spotted an envelope with his name on it in front of the door. He bent down to pick it up and then opened the door. Once inside he sat on the bed and tore open the envelope and started to read the letter:

I know who you are. Meet me at the docks at 7P.M. and not a minute later. If you neglect to meet me your cover will be blown.

Cooper read the letter again. The only people that knew about his role in the hostage crisis were Maxie and Craig and Craig had to be far away from Port Charles. Before he could think about it anymore he heard a knock on the door. He hide the letter under some clutter on the nightstand and went to the door. He opened it to find Maxie standing in the hall.

"Hi," He said kissing her once she got into the room.

"So did you get the third degree from Mac?" Cooper asked once they pulled away.

"Almost. Georgie covered for me but…" Maxie let her sentence trail.

"But what?" Cooper asked.

"He wants you to come over tomorrow night for dinner because he want to get to "know you better" but if you don't want to do I can try and get you out of it,"

"No it's fine you don't have to get me out of it," Cooper said sitting on the bed with Maxie.

"Are you sure because I mean Mac will probably do the whole ask one question after another because we're dating thing and if you don't want to do that--" Maxie was cut off by Cooper leaning down and kissing her.

"I told you it was fine, I want to go okay?"

"Okay," Maxie said as Cooper kissed her again causing her to lean back on the bed.

"So you guys are good now?" Kristina asked after hearing Chasity explain the whole thing with her brother.

"Yeah, you're not mad I told Spencer first are you?"

Kristina shook her head.

"Not at all, I can understand why you went to Spencer he's always been good at just sitting there and letting you vent and still throwing his two cents in,"

Chasity nodded as they came up the stairs of the hallway where all the rooms were at Kelly's.

"Let me go check on Coop since he just got home and I haven't really gotten to talk to since last night and then we can go, okay?"

"Yeah that's fine with me," Kristina said following Chasity.

Chasity gently knocked on the door and then opened it a little.

"Hey Coop Kristina and I are…" Chasity let her sentence trail when she saw Cooper and Maxie were in the middle of a make out session.

Cooper and Maxie both looked up to see Kristina and Chasity in the doorway.

Before Cooper or Maxie could say anything Chasity cut them off.

"We see that you guys are busy, continue on just ignore the fact we were here," Chasity said exchanging glances with Kristina as they tried to hold back laughter.

With that both girls left the room and busted out laughing.

Back in the room Cooper and Maxie exchanged glances and shook their heads and laughed silently as they heard the girls laughing in the hallway.

"What's so funny?" Spencer asked when Kristina and Chasity met him at the Pizza Shack.

"Just what happened in Cooper's room before we came here," Chasity said.

"What happened?" Spencer asked.

"We caught my brother and Maxie in the middle of intimate moment I guess,"

"I think her face turned five shades of pink," Kristina said laughing a little.

"Can we just drop the subject please?"

Spencer nodded.

"So you guys are…" Spencer said letting his sentence trail unaware that Kristina knew all the stuff about Chasity and Cooper.

"She told me all of it, it's okay," Kristina said.

"So you guys are okay now?"

Chasity nodded.

"Yeah, we're good now,"

Spencer and Kristina nodded know Chasity probably didn't want to talk about it too much.

After that they just talked about not wanting to go back to school.


	22. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Cooper walked onto the docks. Maxie had to leave Cooper's room to go to Metro Court because she had to work the late shift at the boutique so he didn't have to worry about her getting suspicious. Cooper's thoughts were interrupted by hearing footsteps on the docks. He turned around slowly to see whose footsteps they were. It was Mr. Craig the leader of the hostage crisis.

"You're not late,"

"What do you want?" Cooper asked wanting to get to the point.

"It's simple really; you keep your mouth shut about my involvement in the hostage crisis,"

"I hadn't planned on saying anything about the hostage crisis; I still won't say anything,"

"I can't take your word on that but there is one way to make sure you don't say anything, kidnap Maxie Jones, the one hostage you've come to care about," Craig said in amusement.

"You can do whatever you want with me but don't drag Maxie into this,"

"I won't have to if you keep your word and keep your mouth shut but, then again maybe I should kidnap her--- just to get my point across," Craig said tauntingly.

"I got your point, keep my mouth shut but, you know it wouldn't be the smartest move to take Maxie---I mean her father is the police commissioner," Cooper pointed out calmly.

Craig waved his hand dismissively.

"They couldn't get me for the hostage crisis they won't be able to get me for this,"

"But I won't have to worry about that because you'll keep your mouth shut, right?" Craig added.

"Right,"

"Good,"

Craig watched as Cooper walked away and laughed to himself. Cooper didn't realize he had other plans.

Back at the Pizza Shack Spencer, Chasity and Kristina were still talking.

"Okay dessert time!" the girls exclaimed in unison.

Spencer rolled his eyes.

"You two are both Chocoholics you know that?"

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with a girl liking chocolate," Chasity protested.

"Yeah until you eat so much you make yourself sick to your stomach because you ate so much," Spencer shot back.

Chasity sighed.

"Okay you have a point but only because that's happened to me before,"

"Okay, how?"

"It was my birthday last year, I was sleeping over at one of my friends houses and we had cookie cake. Well we ate almost all the cookie cake and then drank half of a twelve pack of Mountain Dew. Both of us ended up sick the next day," Chasity explained.

"You guys did the sleepover method too?" Kristina asked.

"Yeah, it was always fun until the next morning,"

Spencer rolled his eyes at the girls.

Kristina looked at Spencer and then at Chasity.

"He just can't appreciate the sleepover method the way we do,"

"He's a guy. Guys usually can't," Chasity said.

"Hey guys I'm still sitting here and can hear you, you do realize that don't you?"

"Yes, we do realize that," Kristina said laughing.

Spencer started to say something but Chasity cut him off.

"Come on we should go get the chocolate," Chasity said pulling Spencer by his arm.

Once they got to the counter they ordered and then a silence fell over them. After a few minutes Spencer broke the silence between them.

"Hey are you okay?" I mean with everything that happened with Cooper?"

Chasity smiled slightly.

"I'm okay now but, I'm not sure I could've forgiven him as easily if you hadn't said what you had on the docks,"

"I said a lot on the docks, what was it that helped?" Spencer asked.

"When you said he may not have been in my life for three years but he was there now, you saying that and me being afraid something was really wrong kind of made me come to my senses I guess. I mean before all this happened I at least knew he'd always be there to back me up if I needed it---even if I was mad at him but when we were at GH and didn't know what was wrong I wasn't so sure anymore and that scared me,"

Spencer smiled slightly and did something that surprised them both---he took her hand and gave it a light squeeze.

"It was a normal reaction to be scared; I mean he is your brother,"

Before Chasity could respond the person behind the counter had their order and they let go of each others hands. After that they went back to the table.

Later that night Maxie walked out of Metro Court. It was midnight so she had just finished her shift. She sighed as she came closer to her car but before she could get in she felt someone wrap their hand around her mouth…


	23. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Maxie slowly opened her eyes and looked around her surroundings. She saw plastic crates and old boxes so she knew she was in one of the many warehouses located in Port Charles. She slowly started to remember what happened, as she was starting to get in her car after her shift at Metro Court someone grabbed her but she couldn't tell who because it had been so dark. She tried to move but couldn't because her hands were tied tightly behind her back. Before Maxie could do anything else she heard an eerily familiar voice.

"I see you're finally awake," Craig said.

"I thought you left Port Charles, I mean considering your role in the hostage crisis,"

"I couldn't leave just yet because of unfinished business," Craig explained.

"Okay what do I have to do with this unfinished business?"

"You're the leverage, I've taken away one of the people Cooper cares about which means he has to keep his mouth shut about my involvement in the hostage crisis in order to keep you safe,"

Maxie felt herself getting angry.

"Do you know how sick and twisted that sounds?"

"Yeah isn't it great?" Craig asked in an amused tone.

Maxie's only reply was a cold stare.

"Well since you don't seem to be up to talking I guess I will take care of other things," Craig said as he started to walk to the other end of the warehouse.

Maxie just stared after him while she tried to untie her hands.

The next morning Craig came back to the warehouse to find the chair Maxie was sitting in moved half an inch.

"I see you tried to untie yourself,"

"Well I had to at least try," Maxie replied.

"That wasn't a smart move, doing stuff like that could get you in trouble with me,"

Maxie resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She knew Craig was a ruthless jerk and that was putting it nicely but, she knew he was throwing his weight around because if he killed her he wouldn't have anymore leverage against Cooper.

"You can't hurt me; if you did Cooper wouldn't have any reason not to rat you out,"

"Very true, but if Cooper did rat me out I wouldn't have any reason not to hurt him and I can guarantee you that I could get to him before the cops ever got to me,"

"I swear if you hurt Cooper--" Maxie started feeling herself go into protective mode but was cut off by Craig.

"You'll what? You can't stop me anymore than he can. You know it's really cute how you two try to protect each other; it's too bad it won't work,"

Maxie didn't say anything she just sat there and tried to think of any way to get out of that warehouse.

"Well I have to go deal with some more unfinished business," Craig said walking out of the warehouse.

Maxie sighed and looked around the warehouse again and her eyes landed on the stack of crates. She noticed something she hadn't before; they had the number fifteen stamped on them.

_Warehouse 15._ Maxie thought to herself.

Okay she knew which warehouse she was in now all she had to do was find a way to get out. As she tried to untie herself Maxie felt her cell phone in her back pocket and that gave her and idea…She just hoped it worked.

Back at Kelly's Cooper and Chasity were having breakfast before he had to go to Metro Court for his shift. After a few minutes of silence Cooper spoke up.

"Okay you're never this quiet unless you're mad or upset about something or you're thinking about something, so which is it?"

"Well I've been thinking, since spring break is almost over and I really don't want to go home and deal with mom could I transfer to PC High so I could stay in Port Charles?"

"I don't have a problem with you staying but mom might," Cooper pointed out.

"Yeah well mom can just---" Chasity was cut off by the ringing of Cooper's cell phone.

Cooper opened his cell phone to see a new text message. It read: _Craig. Warehouse 15_

"What's wrong?" Chasity asked seeing the look on Cooper's face.

"Craig has Maxie,"

"That was the leader of the hostage crisis wasn't it?" Chasity asked.

Cooper nodded.

"I better go," Cooper said starting out the door.

Chasity stopped Cooper by grabbing his arm.

"Be careful, please,"

Cooper put his hand on Chasity's shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"I'll be careful, I promise,"

Chasity nodded.

With that Cooper walked out the door and Chasity got on her cell phone. She wasn't going to let Cooper go find Craig without back up.


	24. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Cooper walked onto the docks. He knew there was a row of warehouses just a little ways past the docks and he figured one of them had to be labeled fifteen. He walked a little ways and didn't stop until he got to the warehouse that had the number fifteen stamped on the door. When he walked in the warehouse he found Maxie sitting in a chair with her hands tied behind her back. He walked over to her and started to undo the knotted rope.

"You got the text message," Maxie said relief washing over her.

"Yeah I got it," Cooper said looking briefly at Maxie before going back to untie the rope.

He almost had the rope untied when he heard the familiar voice from the night before.

"I would stop that if I was you,"

Back at Kelly's Chasity and Spencer were sitting at a table waiting for Kristina.

"Okay what's wrong?" Spencer asked after a long silence.

Chasity gave him a confused look even though she knew what she was talking about.

"Nothing's wrong, why?"

Spencer didn't say anything he just gave her his "Yeah right" look.

Chasity rolled her eyes.

"Don't do that,"

"Don't do what?" Spencer asked innocently.

"Give me the "Yeah right" look like you do when you think I'm fibbing,"

"I do not have a "Yeah right" look,"

Chasity gave a sarcastic laugh.

"Yes you do,"

"What are you two arguing about now?" Kristina asked when she sat down at the table

"We don't argue, we bicker," Spencer clarified.

Kristina and Chasity just exchanged glances.

"But really, tell us what's wrong," Spencer said turning serious.

Chasity sigh if she had learned one thing about Spencer over spring break he was understanding but very insistent when he knew something was really wrong and you needed to talk about it.

"I'm worried about Cooper, he went off to play hero to Maxie because someone kidnapped her," Chasity said leaving out the fact Craig was the one that kidnapped Maxie.

"He just went to find her by himself?" Kristina asked.

Chasity nodded.

"After he left I called the PCPD so he wouldn't be doing it by himself,"

"Does he know who took her?" Spencer asked.

Chasity hesitated, she didn't want to lie to her friends but she didn't want to get Cooper in trouble either.

"Chas its okay you can tell us, we won't tell anybody," Spencer said gently.

Chasity sighed and began to explain.

Cooper turned around to face Craig who was aiming his gun.

"I told you to leave Maxie out of this," Cooper said slowly pulling out the gun he used for his security job at Metro Court.

"Yes you did, but I did say I might kidnap Maxie to get my point across,"

Maxie let her eyes dance between Cooper and Craig until they finally landed on Cooper as she continued to untie the already loosened rope. She must not have been paying full attention to the conversation because the next think she knew Craig was talking to her.

"We've been having a lot of fun, haven't we Maxie?"

Maxie's only reply was a cold stare identical to the one she'd given him earlier.

"Well I see you're still not wanting to cooperate," Craig said shaking his head.

"You can do whatever you want with me but don't get Maxie anymore involved in this than she already is," Cooper said his eyes still on Craig but he glanced in Maxie's direction.

"Well now that you offer it can be arranged," Craig said aiming his gun at Cooper.

Before Maxie could really process what was going on she heard two shots go off and she wasn't sure who was hurt. She just hoped it wasn't Cooper.


	25. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Maxie kept her eyes on Cooper as she finally slipped out of the rope. When she saw that he wasn't getting up Maxie ran over to where he was lying on the pavement floor and knelt beside him. She could see that the color had drained from his face and he had already lost consciousness. Before she could think about anything else she heard the warehouse door open and the PCPD busted in. A few officers went over to Craig who was in the corner clutching his injured shoulder while the other half tried to tend to Cooper the best they could until the paramedics got there. Mac Gently pulled Maxie out of the way.

"I should call his sister," Maxie said still in shock of what had and was happening as the paramedics finally arrived.

She got out of Mac's grasp and walked over to one of the corners of the warehouse and got out her cell phone.

When Maxie got to GH Chasity approached her with Spencer following close behind her.

"What happened?" Chasity asked knowing it was a stupid question but she was too scared to care at the moment.

"Craig and Cooper were talking and then two shots went off and then Cooper---" Maxie was cut of by Patrick and Robin coming into the waiting area.

"How is he?" Maxie asked.

Patrick and Robin exchanged glances.

"When Craig shot him the bullet went into his chest but we won't know how much damage it did until we get him into the O.R." Robin explained.

Maxie sighed and blinked back tears.

"Can we see him before you take him into surgery?"

"He regained consciousness after we stabilized him and he asked to see you, so go ahead,"

Maxie and Chasity nodded and headed back to the room they had him in.

When they got back into the room Maxie didn't say anything she just grabbed his hand and gave it a light squeeze and he squeezed back.

"Are you okay?" Cooper asked after a few minutes.

Maxie smiled slightly.

"I should be asking you that,"

Before Cooper could respond Robin and Patrick stepped into the doorway.

"We need to take you down to the O.R." Robin said giving Maxie a sympathetic look when she saw the look on her face. The look didn't go missed by Cooper either.

"Hey look at him, I'll be okay I promise," Cooper said lifting Maxie's chin.

"Don't--- Don't promise me something you're not sure of, just promise me you're going to fight, okay?"

"I promise,"

"We really need to get down to the O.R." Patrick said.

Maxie nodded.

She turned to face Cooper again and leaned down to gently kiss him.

After that Maxie and Chasity watched as Robin and Patrick took him down to the O.R.

Back in the waiting room Maxie sat quietly while Chasity constantly moved her foot the same way she had when they had had to stay in the waiting room before.

Maxie sighed.

It felt like déjà vu not because Cooper had been hospitalized before but because it brought back memories of what happened to Jesse.

Maxie cringed slightly as she remembered what happened…

"Can he breathe on his own? My God!"

"Maxie, we're doing the best we can."

"Maybe I can help! I know C.P.R.! Please let me hold his hand. He needs to know that I'm here."

"Maxie, Maxie --"

"He needs to know that I'm here!"

"Listen to me. You listen to me now, okay? Do you want to help Jesse, huh? You stay calm, alright? I know how strong you are. I have seen it. I have seen you pull through it, okay? Get a hold of yourself, stop screaming, and pray for Jesse, okay?"

"He has a bullet in his head!"

"I know. People live through that. I've seen it, alright? I've heard stories -- people live through that."

"Okay. Okay."

Maxie felt a tear roll down her cheek. After that happened she swore she never wanted to feel that kind of pain again but here she was not even a year later in almost the same position just different circumstances. She just hoped this time it had a happier ending.

Chasity sat quietly in the waiting room chair trying to think about anything except the fact her older brother had gotten shot and now was in the O.R. She felt angry, angry at Craig for shooting Cooper in the first place and angry at the fact she could lose her brother after just getting him back.

Chasity's thoughts were interrupted by Spencer sitting down next to her.

"I guess I don't have to ask how you are,"

"I'm scared," Chasity said holding back tears.

Spencer didn't say anything he just let Chasity rest her head on his shoulder.

Later that night Maxie was awakened by Robin and Patrick who were accompanied by Monica.

"What happened? How is he?" Maxie asked glancing back at Chasity who was still sound asleep with her head on Spencer's shoulder.

Robin sighed.

"During surgery we discovered a problem that wasn't caused by the bullet wound, his heart muscle is severely weakened---" Robin was cut off by Maxie.

"He needs a heart transplant doesn't he?" Maxie asked even though she knew the answer.

Robin just nodded.

"Can I go see him?"

"Yeah, he woke up a little while before we came out here," Robin said.

"So he already knows?"

Robin nodded

Maxie didn't say anything else she just headed towards Cooper's room.

When she got to back to Cooper's room neither of them said anything---They didn't have to. Maxie just carefully climbed into the bed next to Cooper and they stayed in a comfortable silence.


	26. Epilogue

A/N: This is the last Chapter.

* * *

Epilogue

Cooper and Maxie walked up the stairs to the room above Kelly's. It had been a few days since Cooper had first gotten shot, the day after the surgery they told Chasity about Cooper needing a heart transplant and she had taken it hard. They had also been informed by Mac that Craig had been taken into custody.

"We should check on Chasity before we go into my room,"

Maxie nodded.

"Okay,"

Cooper slowly unlocked the door with the key Chasity had given him, when he opened the door it revealed Chasity snuggled under the blanket with her feet hanging over the edge of the bed while she still had her adidas flip flops on. Cooper walked over to the end of the bed and gently slipped the flip flops off her feet and then put them over by her nightstand.

After that he and Maxie quietly left the room hand in hand.

When they got to Cooper's room they climbed into the bed. When Maxie had first told Mac she was going to stay at Cooper's for the night he didn't think it was a good idea but he eventually came around. Maxie rested her head on Cooper's shoulder and he gently stroked her hair while they stayed in a comfortable silence. They didn't have to say anything; they knew whatever happened they'd get through it. Together.

_The_

_End_


End file.
